Boardwalk, Baltic Ave or Bust?
Take a ride on the Reading Railroad. If you pass the K-Rock Centre, please pay City Hall $200. By now you may have heard that Kingston is competing with sixty-five other Canadian cities for coveted real estate on a brand new version of Monopoly. Monopoly Canada will be released by Hasbro in June 2010, while Canadian’s have until the 7th of February to vote their top three cities onto the updated board. After the final ballots are cast, the top twenty cities will be placed on the board according to the number of votes they’ve received. In addition, two cities will be selected in a wild card vote. With only thirty-five days left to vote, the question is, will the Limestone City make the cut?
When I initially caught wind of this story, I was advised that Kingston was a shoo-in. In fact, my credible “source” went so far as to tell me that Kingston had already begun selecting a local landmark to represent the city on the updated board game. However, after a quick inspection of the cities that presently qualify for real estate via Monopoly Canada, it’s apparent that Kingston is no where to be seen. Presently, the Limestone City is sitting in 45th place after receiving 0.8% of the total votes, which is well behind 1st place St. Jean-sur-Richelieu (5.3%), and 2nd place Calgary (4.7%).
It comes as a bit of a surprise that Kingston is being pummelled by the likes of Peterborough, Saint-Hyacinthe and Sault Ste. Marie. All of which have much smaller populations than Kingston. So what gives? Are Kingstonian’s not aware of this competition, or are they simply apathetic? Whatever the case may be, Deputy Mayor Mark Gerretsen is urging Kingstonians to vote online. “Kingston is one of the very best places to live in Canada and our placement on the Monopoly board should reflect that,” says Gerretsen, who notes that MoneySense magazine named the city as one of the top three places to live in Canada last May.
Sadly, neither Kingston’s ranking in MoneySense nor Queen’s high placement in McLean’s annual university rankings will make any difference when it comes to whether or not the Limestone City takes Boardwalk, Baltic Avenue, or nothing at all. If you’re dying to see Kingston end up on the board, vote here and vote often.
Special thanks to sling@flickr for today’s photo of a high stakes game of Monopoly.
We deserve the Jail Space. Out of any city in this country, Kingston is the most suitable to fill that position.
Ha! That would certainly be fitting. Perhaps they'll rename the jail space the Collins Bay Institution.
That is so true!
I enjoy Monopoly, and I enjoy Kingston… but honestly, I don't really care if Kingston is included on a new board. I feel that the makers of Monopoly are always trying to come up with some new gimmick to keep their classic game relevant in a digital world. Star Wars Monopoly, Disney Monopoly, New York Monopoly, Electronic Banking Monopoly… and the list goes on. How many versions of Monopoly could I possibly own?
I've heard that games like "Settlers of Catan" (that I enjoy even more than Monopoly) are really starting to take off and are giving Monopoly a run for its money. I doubt we'll ever see a "Settlers of Catan Canada".
Obviously this is one big marketing scheme to get people excited about a board game that saw it's popularity take a dive with the advent of video games. Even so, it would be pretty cool to see Kingston make the cut, and get whatever sort of weird recognition goes along with the honour.
Don't forget "Tim Horton's" Monopoly. Seriously.
I heard about this, and tried to vote, but lost interest when the website asked me to register and log in :)
While I agree that this is simply another marketing scheme to get people excited about a game that may have lost popularity in the past few years…I also admit that I am one of those "suckers". Monopoly is, or at least should be, a staple of of family life. Its one of those games that first comes to mind when you want to do something as a family when it comes to board games. I would definitly purchase a Canadian Version of Monopoly that had our city featured on it. Go Kingston!
rtq is right on – I didn't register to vote when Canada was vying for real-estate on "World Monopoly", and I'm no more likely to register to vote now. Besides, I think I'd rather see Kingston left off than see it garner one of those light-blue or purple properties nobody wants… ;)